


unsleep

by speakgreektome (epicionly)



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Canon - Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep, F/M, Family, Gen, Implied Aqua/Terra, POV Second Person, Post-Master Eraqus taking Ven as his new apprentice, Pre-Birth By Sleep, Wayfinder Trio
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-22
Updated: 2013-11-22
Packaged: 2018-01-02 08:02:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1054403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epicionly/pseuds/speakgreektome
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ven can't sleep.</p>
            </blockquote>





	unsleep

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yourhandiheld](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourhandiheld/gifts).



> Jay and I were talking about how depending on context we would feel about Terra/Aqua, how that would be put aside because LOOK AT THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH VEN OKAY it's all three of them in the family. Also we talked about the portrayal of most het pairings. We still didn't know what it'd be like. So I tried this.

Shhh.

It’s alright. Let your heart settle. Nothing will hurt it here. Not for hopefully a long time.

Yes, a long time.

All will be well.

You sleep in a warm bed tonight for one more night. You sleep aware of yourself. There is nothing that is wrong with that. There is nothing wrong with comfort, not the soft mattress, not the fluffed pillow, not the thick quilt pulled over your shoulders.

Hardship and constant self-sacrifice and running yourself ragged is not the way to live, not how it was before.

It’s alright. Taking care of yourself is more important than that.

Shhh. Shhh. No, no. Don’t care about what was said. It’s not relevant to you anymore, don’t force yourself.

Remember what you were told? By your Master. Eraqus. Master Eraqus. He’s intimidating, but you do agree. He says good things to you. He says kind things. He has been Aqua and Terra’s Master for a long time. His words have merit.

So it’s important to look after yourself, okay? It’s important to value yourself. You need to value yourself. You’re so important in the grand scheme of things.

There are tissues in the box next to the bed. It’s dark, yes. If you tap on the bulb sculpture over there, it becomes a nightlight. That’s better.

Gentle Ven, it’s alright. Breathe.

It’s alright. Don’t blame yourself. It was a very long time ago. Or what feels like it. You might’ve been thrown away, but it doesn’t mean anything. You needn’t remember anything about that. Focus.

Yes. The emptiness in your heart has been filled now, so you should be alright. It’s very warm, isn’t it? Like a child’s. There was someone’s heart at one point. It was very warm.

Come. Take a few steps.

It’s cold. Will you be alright?

Continue.

Gently.

Quietly.

Out the door.

“Aqua?”

Individual rooms here are spacious and very generous. Aqua looks like she must’ve been in the middle of something in the room that is full of gorgeous blue hues and an almost mystical enchantment cast around its atmosphere. Tall lamps coast over the doorway, gentle colours along the painted walls twinkle down at you. The air feels very warm despite how cool it looks—fresh.

No, don’t go. Don’t feel bad about interrupting her; she wouldn’t want that.

“Ven?” She kneels down at you, cupping your face. Aqua’s hand is warm. Lean in, it’s fine. See? She won’t push you away. “You couldn’t sleep?”

“I don’t know.” You open your eyes again. “Do I have to go to sleep now?”

She thinks about it, and then offers her hand to you as she straightens. Take it—it curls gently around your own. It’s soft, even with the calluses.

Aqua is kind. She brings you to the kitchen, and gets you something warm to drink (it might be milk), but she doesn’t do it fast. Instead, it’s almost like it’s a dance. It’s very nice watching her make the trip to the stove, to the cabinets, to the fridge, to the washed dishes to grab a mug.

In the meantime, you crawl upon Your Seat. There’s nothing that marks it differently than the other three seats. The fourth one is Master Eraqus’s. They don’t need to tell you that. But it makes you wonder about what the one you use. Who did it belong to before you?

The chair has taller legs than you have, but that’s fine. You kick your feet off an invisible floor and swing them back and forth as you watch. Then you get bored and you shift on the seat. Get on your knees, lean over, fold you arms over the top of your chair. Watch her.

Aqua has poured two mugs instead of one of stove-heated warm milk.

“Did you want some hot chocolate, Ven?” she asks you, as she brings them over and put them on the table.

“This is okay,” you say, and you cautiously grab your own. It’s warm. You like that.

She smiles, and takes out Her Seat, and settles down. She doesn’t ask you about why you couldn’t sleep. She does eventually start talking to you quietly though.

Smiling like she does in the way that makes you feel very warm and special on the inside, you almost don’t realize when she draws you to talk.

Something about training, maybe. Or about a surprise Aqua has for you. Or what Terra was up to. Or asking what she was doing while you were trying to sleep.

“Terra’s back,” she says at one point, cutting something she was saying short.

You don’t hear it, but then you do, the way the doors creak open. It’s a very quiet noise, so quiet.

You look back at Aqua, and she nods at you, so you slip down from your seat (feet first), and then go over to check.

The hallways of this place are very strange. They are very ornate. Master Eraqus told you that it was because the place has a lot of history.

“Terra!”

His dark face lights up when he sees you, and you can’t help but feel very happy at the same time. “Hello Ven,” he says, reaching out to ruffle your hair. You like that. It feels nice.  “I’m surprised you’re awake.”

You’re not small by any means (you aaaareeennn’t). Especially when you’re standing next to Terra. He makes someone feel like they could be tall themselves, if they looked forward, if they earnestly tried. You feel like you want to make him proud. You feel like you want to tell him everything.

“I couldn’t sleep. Aqua heated some milk for me.”

“I could use some of that. Think there’s anything left?”

“I think so. I’ll show you the way.”

You grab his hand almost half-shyly, half-earnestly—he doesn’t and hasn’t pushed you away yet. Terra’s hand is big, dwarfing your own, but how he grips your hand is very gentle. His calluses feel harder than Aqua’s and his knuckles have been scraped recently.

Somehow the trip seems shorter back to Aqua, who’s already got the extra cup of milk ready. “I somehow don’t think you’re going to need to grow anymore,” she says, raising an eyebrow.

“Bottoms up,” Terra agrees, and doesn’t release your hand, drinking with the mug in his other one go. “That was hot.” He splutters a bit, the hand holding yours tightening slightly—but it doesn’t hurt.

Aqua laughs, and you do too. “Didn’t stop you from chugging it down.” She looks kindly down at you, and then bends her knees slightly to reach your level. She’s so pretty.  “Do you want some more milk too, Ven?”

“I’m fine,” you say, and you reach out almost daringly for her hand. She gives it to you, and you hold both for a minute, revelling in the warmth, the strength, the protection.

You’re aware that they’re both looking at you. You look up, and Terra’s face is soft, and his smile is fond. You look back down, across, to Aqua’s gentle expression, her warm smile. What were they like before you were here?

You ask.

“Terra, Aqua,” you ask, “what was it like before?”

“Before?”  Aqua asks.

“For you two. Were you a family before?”

Terra smiles. “We weren’t anything, really.”

“We were close enough,” Aqua corrects from where she pulls out and sits herself on Terra’s Seat, tugging you gently into yours, that she’s also kindly put in the middle. Terra pulls his hand slightly so you can get up with some help onto Your Seat, before he gracefully takes Aqua’s.

 “Friends,” Terra says, at the same time as Aqua tries to figure it out, and says, “Something.”

They stare at each other, before bursting into laughter, shaking the grips they hold on your hands. Realize it right now; they’re not going to let go unless you do first—and they’re happy to keep holding on.

“Who knows?” Terra muses, and he starts leisurely swinging his arm so that yours does.

“I certainly don’t,” Aqua agrees. She swings your arm back so that it becomes a kind of game. It’s actually kind of fun because she squeezes your hand after a while instead of the swinging, and it has all of what Aqua is in it.

They talk agreeably amongst themselves for a while. You speak up, and they stop, they listen.

It’s always been warm here. It’s always been safe.

Before you know it, your eyelids are drooping. Actually, you don’t even know about it, not until your hands are slightly cold, and someone picks you up, hefts you into their arms.

“He’s heavy,” Terra says, and you end up being sort of rocked as he moves around. A row of chairs scootch, muffled in the distance, and your face is buried into something, hands loose and arms leaning off something.

There’s a knowing pause. “He’s Ven.” Her gentle fingers tuck the wisps of your hair behind your ear, lingering. “So he’s light as the wind.”

Terra grunts.

“What a waste of muscle,” Aqua says amiably.

A bark of laughter.

With every step, you feel drowsier and drowsier, rocked slowly, comfortably.

“Terra,” Aqua’s voice says from a distance. “I’m so glad for Ven.”

The world deadens after that.

Quiet.

It’s so quiet, it’s so warm.                                                                                      

You’re being tucked in right now, hair ruffled, arms and legs gently rearranged. Rolling over, rolling around—let them at least put the blanket on you first, Ven.

A click.

The door closes.

You open your eyes, and the darkness isn’t scary anymore.

 

end.


End file.
